Neurology has advanced from nihilism to the beginnings of hope. The use of dilantin, penicillin, and levodopa showed that diseases of the nervous system can be treated. The Decade of the Brain unveiled the peering magnificence of brain imaging and the enormous potential of genetics. In the new millennium, we will begin to understand the crucial interactions between the environment and genes and will target individual therapies. One fifth of all human genes are expressed in the brain, making it the most varied of all human organs. We will have to consider not only "what lesion?" but "whose brain?" The blood-brain barrier will be breached, opening the brain to a new range of treatments, from gene therapy to stem cell seeding.